Collecting Stones

I've been away. And I've been busy preparing to be away and then coming back. Of course, I managed to find some time in there to beat myself up about not posting to my blog in those days. I had promised myself that I would be disciplined enough to post something everyday, even if it wasn't any good. But then I remembered, the point of small stones is not to blog something every day, but to notice something everyday and capture it. So while I've been away, I've been observing and collecting stones on modern scraps of paper (my iTouch notepad). And now I'm back to share my collection of travel stones with you.

As an aside, one thing I've noticed is how much I am aware yet not aware when I'm out of my routine. We talk about seeing things anew in the midst of our daily routine, but I noticed how much I get caught up in the busy-ness of being away, of catching trains, reading timetables, and going to "see" things. Caught up so much that I don't actually see the world around me any more than I normally do. My expectations, excitement and the storylines in my head get in the way, just as they do every day. So I found it interesting to notice how new place vs old place, old routine vs no routine made very little difference sometimes to my attention on the world around me.

I've done my best to collect a few stones while I've been away. I hope you enjoy them and now I'm off to do what else I realised that I've missed whilst being disconnected: reading other people's stones!